January Pending Home Sales Fall

From Bloomberg:

Pending Sales of Existing Homes in U.S. Fell 4.1% in January

Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy previously-owned homes in January, suggesting lingering weakness in the housing market.

An index of signed purchase agreements fell 4.1 percent, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The index was 8.9 below the year-earlier level.

Today’s report, along with recent ones showing declines in new home sales and mortgage applications during January, suggest any housing recovery will be gradual. January’s weakness follows a jump in home resale contracts during December, prompted in part by unseasonably warm weather, economists said.

Housing is “really pretty stagnant right now and if you try to get away from the weather impact in the home sales data, that’s what you see,” Kevin Harris, chief economist at Informa Global Markets in New York, said before the report.

The index fell to 108.7 in January after rising a revised 4.5 percent in December to 113.3. A year earlier, the January index was 119.3.

Economists projected the index would drop 1.2 percent after an originally reported 4.9 percent increase in December, according to the median of 19 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from a drop of 3.5 percent to a gain of 3 percent.

From Marketwatch:

Pending home sales fall 4.1% in Jan.

A gauge of future home buying declined in January, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. The pending home sales index fell 4.1% in January after a 4.5% rise in December. The index is down 8.9% in the past year. David Lereah, chief economist for the realtors’ group, said he detected “an underlying pattern of stabilization in the housing market.” He noted that the pending home sale index has recovered from a low in October. Lereah said unusual weather this winter might distort the picture of the housing market for several months, “but a modest recovery is likely.”

From the National Association of Realtors:

Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) (PDF)